Slept late, though Hubby felt better when we did get up, so after breakfast we saddled up and headed out the trailhead from the campground, through a gate behind the dumpster just a short ways from our campsite. The trail alternated between soft dirt and stony, so we were glad we had put the horses’ boots on before we left. Despite assurances from the very helpful campground host that the trails were well-marked and easy to follow, we managed to get turned around pretty quick, trying to get around a fallen tree, then heading off in the right direction. We corrected ourselves pretty quickly, backtracked and got back on the right path. After a short while, it became cloudy (as it had done for the past few days, with scattered thunderstorms, a much needed respite from the constant sunshine and heat we’ve been experiencing for months now!), and the temps dropped a bit. Then we got caught in a brief storm, with pea-sized hail, which the horses responded to by putting their tails into the wind. We figured that was just as good as anything else, so we put on our ponchos and waited it out, which was only a few minutes. Then we proceeded ahead, and the trails were pretty moderate, fortunately, no big ups and downs, at least not on the correct trail. At one point we lost our way again, and followed a path down a fairly steep incline to a dried stream bed, and when we couldn’t find a trail going out the other side, we realized we had gotten turned around again, and headed back up the incline to the “real” trail. That went up some more, then leveled off for a while. Meanwhile, the weather cleared up considerably, with spots of sun out before the afternoon was out. Not a bad ride, not really outstanding, but I have to say, Groom Creek Horse Camp is really a lovely spot, and worth the trip if you’re passing through. The trail we took was a 5 mile loop (plus our diversions :-), so we were back in about 3 hours, which was just about what we were in the mood for, though there are several other trails available as well. The weather had improved throughout the afternoon, at least until the end of the ride. When we got back, we had just finished putting the horses up and feeding and watering them when we felt a little sprinkle of rain. Moments after we got back into the RV, the sky opened up, the thunder cracked, the lightning flashed, and we had a real gully-washer of a rainstorm that lasted the next several hours. We found out later that a town nearby had several tornados, a rarity in northern Arizona, and there had been some flash flood warnings. We were thankful we got back in the nick of time! Though we had planned on leaving tomorrow, the weather forecast is for more rain, so we’ve decided to stay on another day or two until it clears up, no sense leaving if the weather’s bad both here and at our next stop, the Grand Canyon.
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